#181) WORKING CIRCLES: How Story Circles Graduates Can Keep in Shape

Remember our philosophy of, “the narrative part of the brain is like a muscle that needs to be conditioned over time”? For years we’ve had groups ask how to keep the dynamic of their circle going. Now we have a way.

 

NARRATIVE IS HARD WORK — YOU NEED WORKING CIRCLES

You’ve got a project, it has a narrative, you need help shaping it, who ya gonna call? Maybe some expensive communications consultant? How about you pull together 3-4 people who have been through either Story Circles Narrative Training or the new ABT Framework Course?

Graduates of either have enough familiarity with the basic tools (the ABT, the Dobzhansky Template, the Logline Maker) to give you substantial help. Furthermore, what you really need is not one self-proclaimed expert, but rather a group of 3-4 “ears” who can listen to your ABT and help you strengthen it.

This is what our new WORKING CIRCLES concept offers. For now it’s intended only for graduates of the training, but eventually we may open it up to let outsiders take a shot as well. We’ll see.

 

HOW A WORKING CIRCLE WORKS

It’s a one shot deal. Someone with a project, proposal, presentation, pitch, whatever, is the “host.” The host announces a set Date and Time for the WORKING CIRCLE. The announcement goes up on the Google Group page. Graduates of the training sign up. When 3 sign up, it gets the green light. If 4 sign up it’s full.

The group meets for a half hour, only. The discussion begins with the ABT then goes from there. Maybe the host has a major breakthrough, maybe the group wanders off topic into a detailed discussion of baking brownies during the pandemic. Either way, something good comes of it — communication.

We’ve just launched the first 5. There’s another 5 on deck. We’ll see how it goes.

The new ABT Framework Course is awesome, BUT … the one thing it lacks (that Story Circles has) is the group dynamic. This is both a way to add that bit of experience, as well as provide a resource that can be drawn on for a long time to come.

The Bottom Line: Everyone needs to be developing the narrative dynamics of their work in a WORKING CIRCLE, sooner or later.